Ironically, One of the Most

Ironically, one of the most technologically advanced industries faces the hugest obstacles to integrating information technology into its infrastructure. The case study "Better Medicine Through Information Technology" outlines some of the reasons why health care institutions and the professionals that staff them continue to struggle with information systems or resist them entirely. Cost is not the only reason for the lack of progress in introducing more robust it to the health care industry. The case study points out that endemic societal, political, and cultural restrains are preventing it from improving the efficiency, quality, and cost of care.

As a health care organization administrator I have four major concerns about the organizational impact of information technology advancements. First, I am concerned first about finding enough investors to fund and maintain a large-scale information technology system. The rate of return on investment is difficult to prove given the lack of track record for effective it in any health care organization. At the same time, "cheap processing power and storage," enable inexpensive systems (p. 2). Moreover, "an estimated "savings in the range of $140 billion per year, nearly 10% of total U.S. health care spending, could be achieved through it, mostly by reducing duplicative care, lowering health care administration costs and reducing medical errors," (p. 4). Therefore, it will surely show returns on investment and also lower the rate and cost of malpractice suits.

Second, I am also concerned about the fragmentation of the health care system because "each of the components of health care delivery are independent entities," (p. 5). We would need to create a national, or possibly an international, forum that could create standards for health care information technologies. Just as protocols for email and Internet allow the seamless transmission of data online, so too can the health care industry develop its own digital security and communications protocols. The need for universal standards is crucial. Yet standards would not infringe on the rights of it companies to compete for services.

Third, health care education must also change to encourage increased reliance on information technologies. Working with educational institutions in tandem with health care delivery organizations will be difficult and could take years to reap any benefits from a universal it system. Yet unless health care education instructs students in the scope and potential of it, those systems are unlikely to be used properly or to show the necessary returns on investment either in terms of cost savings or improved quality of care.